California ARB to hold community meetings on coming LEV III combined tailpipe and GHG regulations
26 June 2011
The staff of California Air Resources Board (ARB) is in the process of developing a proposal for Board’s consideration later this year to amend California’s Low-Emission Vehicle (LEV) regulations. The proposed amendments, known as LEV III, ask for more stringent tailpipe and greenhouse gas emission standards for new passenger vehicles sold between 2018 and 2025. (Earlier post.) Combining the control of criteria pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions into a single coordinated package of standards is a new approach to ARB’s motor vehicle standards. ARB also plans to integrate its zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) requirements into this new effort.
ARB will hold three evening workshops throughout the state to hear input from the public as this rulemaking process advances.
Additionally, ARB is preparing an environmental analysis (known as a Functional Equivalent Document, or FED) on the rulemaking (more below). The public meetings will also serve as scoping meetings for the FED, to receive input as to what elements the public considers important for inclusion in the environmental analysis.
The community meetings are currently scheduled for Fresno (12 July); Pacoima (19 July); and Oakland (26 July).
Called “Advanced Clean Cars”, these regulations are intended to significantly reduce greenhouse gas and smog emissions from California’s cars and trucks, to accelerate the numbers of plug-in hybrids and zero-emission vehicles on the roads in California, and to ensure that fuels such as electricity and hydrogen are available for these new vehicle technologies.
ARB has held four public technical workshops on the proposed rulemaking since 2010; a fifth is scheduled for 19 July. These are:
2 March 2010. The first workshop focused on preliminary elements of the proposed criteria pollutant emission standards and involved a presentation of technical information from several studies that are under evaluation for potential GHG emission reduction.
3 May 2010. The second workshop focused on staff’s initial proposal for modifications to the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) regulation.
18 May 2010. The third workshop went into more detail in several areas related to criteria pollutant emissions and GHG emissions.
16 November 2010. The fourth workshop provided an update on proposed requirements for criteria emissions, a review of technologies that can reduce vehicle GHG emissions in the 2017-2025 timeframe, a discussion on California’s Environmental Performance label requirements, and proposed modifications to the ZEV program.
19 July 2011. ARB is preparing a Functional Equivalent Document (FED) pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to identify potentially significant environmental impacts of the proposed Advanced Clean Cars regulations, and feasible mitigation for such impacts. The FED will focus on the potential environmental impacts associated with compliance responses and will include a reasonable range of alternatives to the proposed regulations, as required under CEQA.
This fifth workshop will serve as the scoping meeting for the environmental document. Also, ARB staff will present their proposal for the adoption of the new Federal Fuel Economy and Environmental Label in place of the California’s Environmental Performance Label.
Finally, ARB staff is proposing to update specifications for certification fuel for on-road gasoline vehicles. Staff is updating the certification fuel specification to reflect current in-use gasoline. The proposed certification specification will include 10 volume percent ethanol.
Resources
Usually I think the CARB personnel are green wackos without a fig of reality. Theri absur desires for loser technologies wiht which they have become infatuated, is well known.
In this case, my only comment is: Why wait until 2018?
This is a legitmate thing for CARB to do, but it should be fully coordinated with a FED EPA tightening, to the ultimate, final ever, level of toxic emission regualtion. They propose cleansing emissions to sub SULEV II, (FEDspeak T2B2) or pure, ultimately clean air.
You can't get any cleaner than pristine Clean air, as pure as the driven snow. But fully 25% of the cars on California roads meet that SULEV II level today, Detroit has discovered how to cleans the Otto ICE, but not the Diesel ICE yet, to that level of ultimate cleanliness.
The automakers offered to do it in lieu of other more stupid rules and regulations, like the knotheaded AB32, for a country that emits not a net gram of CO2, to no avail.
Even today with regulations demanding T2B5 and most cars emitting about T2B4 to be certain of passing emissions tests, automobiles have become clean air pumps.
They suck in ambient air in say Los Angeles, breathable but somewhat dirty, process it, and expell cleaner sub-T2B5 air cleaner than what they took in, thereby cleansing the air. These Air Purification Pumps, that we call "cars" exist in numbers appproaching 200+ million, and Americans purchase them and pay to operate them providing expensive fuel and lubricants.
Is it any wonder that America is already drawing close to its forty year goal of Clean Air. A goa; thsat we set inot law in 1970s wihtthe adfvent of Earth Day and the bipartisan created EPA.
Posted by: Stan Peterson | 26 June 2011 at 11:47 AM
Green environment and clean fuel is a must but why wait till 2018, when glaciers are melting, sea level is rising, we begin our bit to go green.
America emits the most and they seriously need to change that. It's easy sitting here and commenting but how else can we help.
Development at the cost of environment!
Developed countries have the technology which they do not share with developing countries, so that makes emissions, pollution uncontrollable.
going green
Posted by: Account Deleted | 26 June 2011 at 12:26 PM
According to Stan, we will drive our way to cleaner air, that will be the day...dream on.
Posted by: SJC | 26 June 2011 at 04:15 PM
SJC,
You may have thought that you were being facetious; but that is indeed exactly, what I am saying.
It is not a manana, someday thing, either. Today, developed North America has only two metropolitan areas that have not attained clean air, metro-wide.
They are Houston and Los Angeles. There are still metropolitan wide dirty air for several days a year, in both locations. Of course there are technical, temporary, localized, violatiosn that occur everywhere; and that will always be so. That is where a portion of the metroplolitan areas air is temporarily pollutted. But every other metro area no longer suffers from endemic, metro-wide poor air quality.
Both Houston and LA have made great progress too. Los Angeles used to suffer from smog for 275+ days a year. Now the days of smog are down to about 25 days or so, and on those days the smog is a lot lighter than it used to be.
The situation in Houston is similar. We are nearing the time to proclaim out goals of Earth Day in 1970 have been achieved, even if you would laugh at such a concept. In fact, we have met the targets if we used the regulations and definitions of 1970. By our tougher standards of today, we still have work to do, as I described, and we are hard at it.
It only shows haoe much your brain has been throughly laundered by the constant propaganda and themes of Doomsday. You apparently, really can't see the forest for the trees. You apparently think all the efforts we have undertaken for forty years, and the Billions we have spent, and continue to do so, are for nauhgt.
Posted by: Stan Peterson | 27 June 2011 at 07:59 AM
Good news from Earth.
Climate warming may be progressively reversed with the coming of weaker Earth magnetic field, creating cooling of Earth surface temperatures. Changes in the Sun magnetic field may contribute to a further cooling effect. If so, we may be going in another Ice Age.
Magnetic poles recent accelerated movements and weaker Earth magnetic field normally indicate the arrival of magnetic poles reversal. That phenomena happened about 30 times in the last 250 million years. The last poles reversal was about 750,000 years ago. We are almost due for another one. The poles reversal process can take many decades. During that phase, Earth can have a multitude of weaker magnetic poles and cooler ground temperatures. The effects of more sun radiation on humans is not well known. Many animals and plants survived the last reversals.
Posted by: HarveyD | 27 June 2011 at 08:59 AM
Stan,
Don't talk to me, you are a nut job.
Posted by: SJC | 27 June 2011 at 09:24 AM
Why wait until 2018? You ask.
Well, they said;
"We must reduce GHGs by 2012, or the world will end."
We said "We cannot afford the bill right now."
They gave us 6 more years.
Posted by: ToppaTom | 28 June 2011 at 07:06 PM